Gus Bradley: Justin Blackmon is in a great frame of mind

Posted by Josh Alper on October 1, 2013, 10:27 AM EDT

AP

When the Jaguars put up their fourth loss of the season against the Colts on Sunday, it meant that the time had run out on wide receiver Justin Blackmon’s suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Blackmon will be back at practice on Wednesday, the first time he’s been able to work with his teamates since his suspension went into effect, and coach Gus Bradley sounds confident that Blackmon will hit the ground running.

“He’s done tremendous these last four weeks,” Bradley said, via Hays Carlyon of the Florida Times Union. “His body fat has dropped and his weight has gained. He’s in really, really good shape right now. He’s done everything that we’ve asked of him, he went on the trips with us. I could go with a list on some of the things we asked him to do that he’s done, so he’s a in a great frame of mind right now.”

Bradley said that he expects Blackmon to start against the Rams in Week Five if he remains in that great frame of mind. Blackmon’s return won’t fix all that ails the Jaguars right now, but he should boost a receiving corps that’s been thinned by injuries and that has struggled to hang onto passes from Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne.

Great frame of mind? Let’s see how happy he is when he sobers up and remembers that he has to catch passes from Toilet Stain Blaine. Wait, I’m sorry…. have passes overthrown to him from Toilet Stain Blaine.

Call Tampa and ask the Bucs to eat most of Josh Freeman’s contract and if they agree, flip Blackmon to the Bucs for Freeman. Both players need a change of scenery, and at least the Jags are getting back a QB that won’t be suspended for the season if he fails his next drug test.

Best case: Freeman bounces back and Jacksonville can draft Clowney. The Bucs get a viable third receiving target.

At least we won’t have to watch Shorts bobbling passes off his hands into interceptions quite so often. Hopefully. Cecil is nowhere to be seen when games are on the line, then when the Jags are down by four touchdowns and he is playing against backups in prevent defense, he adds a hundred yards of garbage time stats.